Washington state Senate Democrats recently produced a $10 billion transportation package which supports a raise on gas taxes, car tabs, and even a $25 tax on bicycles that cost more than $500.

In an email to Dale Carlson, owner of Bike Tech in Tacoma, Washington Rep. Ed Orcutt (R), a member of the State Transportation Committee, defended the idea of a bike tax by saying, “Sorry, but I do think that bicyclists need to start paying for the roads they ride on rather than make motorists pay.”

“When you are riding your bicycle, tell me what taxes are being generated by the act of riding your bicycle,” Orcutt said to the Seattle Bike Blog.

Yet Orcutt’s main support for the tax comes from his belief that riding a bicycle is worse than driving a car for the environment.

“A cyclists [sic] has an increased heart rate and respiration. That means that the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider. Since CO2 is deemed to be a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride,” he said.

All human activity causes global warming, therefore all human activity is bad. This is another reason to tax it, which is what social engineers do when they want less of something.

Some even feel that this could open the door to a carbon tax on breathing. A New York Times op-ed from 2007 said that “right now, everyone is using the atmosphere like a municipal dump, depositing carbon dioxide free,” also suggesting that the government should start charging for the “privilege” by imposing a carbon tax.

Why not? The triumph of moonbattery means that there is no longer any limit whatsoever to government greed or tyrannical absurdity.

Ergo, just SuperGlue(tm) the mouths and nostrils shut of all the cyclists (and eco-freaks) and *voila!* — carbon emissions problem solved!

There, wasn’t that easy?

Jay B.

“When you are riding your bicycle, tell me what taxes are being generated by the act of riding your bicycle,”

I think that completely sums up the whole liberal way of thinking here. Bicycling was all the craze when it was convenient, now it’s just another activity generating global warming.

Bob Roberts

As I pointed out, it will only be a matter of time before moonbat Democrats start talking about how breathing is bad for the environment. This is the first step in justifying genocide for the good of the planet.

Bob Roberts

Chris in N.Va. says: March 5, 2013 at 1:42 pm
————–
OBJECTION! I’m a cyclist… though NOT a moonbat and I know that CO2 is FERTILIZER, good for the biosphere.

Thats a surprise since many wackos were riding bike to beat feul costs and save the planet Now it looks like their producers of HOT AIR and CARBON. Anyway those Dasatdly DemacRATS can fill up their money bins theyll do it

SNuss

WARNING! The pollutants created by Moonbats are harmful to intelligent lifeforms. Symptoms of exposure include: A glassy stare. A lack of moral judgement. A loss of motivation to perform productive tasks. Incoherent babbling. A loss of common sense. And worst of all, a strong desire to limit the freedoms of normal, hard-working people, while confiscating ever-larger portions of their earnings.

http://www.henrypbabcock.com Henry

Anyone who thinks that respiration provides a net gain of CO2 in the atmosphere has ZERO understanding of the terrestrial biological carbon cycle.

Zachriel

Ed Orcutt: A cyclists [sic] has an increased heart rate and respiration. That means that the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider.

Animal respiration is carbon neutral.

Dave Blount: there is no longer any limit whatsoever to liberals’ greed or tyrannical absurdity.

Orcutt is not a liberal.

Bob Roberts: As I pointed out, it will only be a matter of time before moonbat Democrats start talking about how breathing is bad for the environment.

Orcutt is not a Democrat.

OldmanRick

Isn’t ED Orcutt contributing to global warming by emitting both CO2 and CH4 when he breathes and farts?

http://moonbattery Tom Murray

This is obviously a spoof.

Skyfall

Progressivism is a death cult.

Everything they do is rooted in death: support for “recreational” drugs, abortion, eugenics, humanism, “environmentalism” (i.e. humans are a cancer on the earth)…all of it.

They hate themselves and all other human life. They hate God most of all. The end result of anything they do is geared toward the extinction of man.

(…and how, exactly, is animal respiration “carbon neutral”…unless that was meant as sarcasm.)

Skyfall

…and Tom, the point here is it’s getting hard to tell when it IS a spoof. Progs want to end life as we know it, so no matter how far-fetched something is, I’m ready to believe they’d be for it.

Mr Evilwrench

So pretty much the only way to prevent gorebull warmening is to just die in a hole. I’m not ready to do that yet, so they can pound sand.

I just read about Chavez being dead. I can’t wait to hear the funny stories about him from our friend FDR in Hell.

StanInTexas

A cyclists [sic] has an increased heart rate and respiration. That means that the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider.

That is TERRIBLE. If only there was some way that we could discover to get rid of Carbon Dioxide. Perhaps we can engineer a living organism that takes in CO2 and gives off Oxygen.

Wouldn’t that be neat!

FrankHD

I agree with Tom Murray, this is a spoof. Yes, Ed Orcutt said these things but it was a “in your face” sarcastic point to the enviroweenies. I bet he proposed these tax’s with a straight face and I bet he even said “…for the sake of children” somewhere along the line. The liberals, who are as sharp as a dog sh!t, didn’t pick up on it, that’s not a shocker, they probably didn’t even listen to his proposal after the word “tax”.
If I’m wrong then this country is lost.

dan

Earth’s atmosphere contains four gases in significant amounts. Nitrogen is by far the most abundant gas. It comprises 78.08 percent. Oxygen takes up about 20.95 percent of the space in the atmosphere. Argon 0.93 percent. Finally, carbon dioxide (CO2) comprises about 0.038 percent. Other gases are only present in the atmosphere in very small amounts. All these gases combined make up dry air.
That’s 0.038percent….crickets….
I’ve been sayin’ it since the early 70’s:
IT’S THE SUN,STUPID

FrankHD

BTW..have a nice dirt nap Hugo, the world is actually a bit nicer now…just need a few more as$holes to die.

Big Bad Bruins

Building that blender bike would use more energy than the blender itself.

Zachriel

dan: Earth’s atmosphere contains four gases in significant amounts. Nitrogen is by far the most abundant gas. It comprises 78.08 percent. Oxygen takes up about 20.95 percent of the space in the atmosphere. Argon 0.93 percent. Finally, carbon dioxide (CO2) comprises about 0.038 percent. Other gases are only present in the atmosphere in very small amounts. All these gases combined make up dry air.

Of those gases, only CO2 interacts in the thermal infrared range, and can be ignored as far as the greenhouse effect is concerned.

Zachriel

Sorry, that should read the other gases can be ignored as far as the greenhouse effect is concerned.

baboy

I think you have this wrong.

In places like Washington, Colorado, Oregon, etc., the bicycle lobby are a powerful group. They have managed to get public funding for bike trails, the special bike lanes on public roads, etc. Who did you think was pushing for that stuff?

So why should I fund their hobby? I don’t get funding for any of my hobbies by the state. Its time they pay for their own hobby themselves. If that means a bike tax, fine. Or, they can just shut up, give us back the full width of the roadways, and not get taxed. I’m ok with either.

Flu-Bird

The most danerous part of a bike is the loose nut on the wheel

http://www.grouchyconservativepundits.org/ Rusty Bill

There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who “love Nature” while deploring the “artificialities” with which “Man has spoiled ‘Nature.'” The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of “Nature” — but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers’ purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the Naturist reveals his hatred for his own race — i.e., his own self-hatred.

In the case of “Naturists” such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate. – Robert A. Heinlein

BoJangles

“Since CO2 is deemed to be a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride…”

Are not people doing the same thing when they have sex? Is that the next taxable act?

The Tree of Liberty is in dire need of refreshing!

Tchhht!!!

It’s about time bicyclists started paying their fair share to use public roads. Obnoxious a-holes all.

http://rhhardin.blogspot.com rhhardin

There was a Nancy cartoon in the 50s where Nancy or somebody was taxing everything and it finally got to taxing breathing air.

It would be nice to find that strip today.

Momster

I always thought that if politicians could find a way to put meters on our chests they would tax us for every breath we take.

Why isn’t Orcutt being taxed for the voluminous amount of carbon dioxide that spews forth from his pie-hole?

That may not be as far fetched as you think. In D. Keith Mano’s 1973 dystopian novel “The Bridge”, the environmental oligarchy ruled that all humans must commit suicide because the act of breathing kills off microbes in the atmosphere, and surely their right to live is at least as legitimate as ours.